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Winners will not be notified prior to event.

Cincinnati Innovates awards announced

301 entries

16,000 votes

$80,000 in prizes

Cincinnati Innovates wrapped up its four-month online competition Wednesday by recognizing 10 winners in the regional innovation competition. 

Awards were given at a ceremony Wednesday night at the Freedom Center in downtown Cincinnati.  Nearly 300 people attended the event along with 24 corporate sponsors and members of the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association.

Top prize of $25,000 went to Jocelyn Cates, who entered an event venue booking website application called Venue Agent.

Cates was driven to create VenueAgent after working with brides to book venues for their weddings.  VenueAgent helps brides and event planners find available venues – and allows venues to promote discounts for off-peak and off-season dates.

“Many brides don’t know that booking on a Thursday or Friday could save them 50% on their venue – and many venues have a tough time selling off-season dates.  VenueAgent is like the Hotels.com of event venues,” she says.

Cates was among 301 people who completed online entry forms at www.cincinnatiinnovates.com.  Thirty-four percent were women, and 17 self-identified ethnic groups were represented.

More than 16,000 votes were cast for the HYPE! Community Choice Award.

The competition was open to anyone with an idea or an invention who has a connection to the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky MSA.

 “The purpose of Cincinnati Innovates is to identify high potential entrepreneurs and technologies and connect them with more than 50 local resources for entrepreneurs,” says Elizabeth Edwards, former venture capital investor and founder of Metro Innovation, a catalyst for innovation and entrepreneurship. 

The competition was produced by Metro Innovation, with partners Taft law firm, public-private venture capital firm CincyTech, the Northern Kentucky eZone, and 22 other area sponsors.

“This year we really saw more winners than we had awards to give out," said attorney James Zimmerman, a partner at Taft. "From biotechnology and the Internet to consumer products, medical devices and green technology, the range of innovation has been amazing."

Bob Coy, president of CincyTech, says the competition helps spur local entrepreneurial activity, which then spurs economic growth.

“We’ve been very pleased with the kinds of participants Cincinnati Innovates is attracting,” said Coy. “We are looking for strong startups in which to invest, and we’ve seen many good ideas coming out of this competition.”

Enquirer Media 2010 Investors of the Year Tony Shipley and John Habbert were also honored at the dinner.  Mayor Mark Mallory issued a Proclamation in their honor, naming Sept. 22 “Tony Shipley and John Habbert Day” in Cincinnati.  Shipley and Habbert are two of the founding members of the Queen City Angels.  Jack Wyant of Blue Chip Venture Capital presented the honor on behalf of the Greater Cincinnati Venture Association and Enquirer Media.

Award Winners

Commercialization awards sponsored by CincyTech

First Prize, $25,000: Winner: Jocelyn Cates, “VenueAgent” entrepreneur Jocelyn Cates just recently launched Venue Agent, a site listing deals for venues for weddings and other events.  Click here to see video

Second Prize, $10,000: Winner: Suprasanna Mishra, of Mason, “ConcertEverytime” – an application that crawls your music library and figures out your favorite bands, then figures out where you are and alerts you to concert dates for all your favorite artists.

Northern Kentucky Commercialization Award:  $10,000. Winner: Alex Frommeyer, Alex Curry, Daniel Dykes, and Joseph Schab, all Northern Kentucky residents, Intellidontic Endodontic File -  a safer endodontic file that protects patients from nerve damage during root canals. Click here to see video

(Award sponsored by Northern Kentucky eZone, Vision 2015, Northern Kentucky Tri-Ed, and bioLogic)

Legal & Patent Awards sponsored by Taft Law Firm

First Prize, $10,000: Winner: Amit Bhattacharya and David Ralph, OsteoDynamics - a device that enables painless and non-invasive diagnosis of osteoporosis.

Second Prize, $5,000: Winner: Georg Weber, MetaMol Marker for Breast Cancer Aggressiveness - diagnostic tools to predict whether a breast tumor will spread.

LPK Design and Branding Award: $10,000 (applied toward design and branding, sponsored by LPK)

Winner: Sally Pipkin, Patients at Play -- Clothing and IV covers designed to put a smile on parents and kids faces in the hospital - and safely secure needle sites for young patients undergoing treatment.

CoStrategix Web Development Award:  $5,000 (applied toward web application, sponsored by CoStrategix)

Winner: Darcy Crociata, FunBooks - an app that lets you grab status updates, comments and photos from Facebook and click them into a hardcover snapshot of your life stream.

Cooney, Faulkner & Stevens Get Started Award:  $2,500 (applied toward business accounting and advisory, sponsored by Cooney, Faulkner & Stevens)

Winner: Keara Schwartz, ShareSomeSugar -- an eBorrowing community where you can find someone in your neighborhood or social network who is willing to lend you something that you need.

Click here to see video

HYPE! Community Choice Award: $2,000

Winner: Dan Calhoun, of Northern Kentucky, RooRoo - In-flight games for airline passengers.

Student Innovator Award: $1,000

Winner: Carly Hagins, Compostable Portable Restroom -- a greener alternative to current porta-potty designs. Click here to see images

A word about our sponsors:

Our sponsors are committed to driving the long-term economic growth of Cincinnati through innovation.  To find out more about how they are helping create new technologies, fund start-up companies, and create lasting change in the region, visit www.cincinnatiinnovates.com and click on sponsor details.

- CincyTech (Founding sponsor)
- Taft Stettinius & Hollister (Founding sponsor)
- The Haile Foundation (Founding sponsor)

- Enquirer Media

- LPK
- Northern Kentucky Tri-Ed
- Soapbox Media
- Cincinnati Children's Hospital
- CoStrategix
- Vision 2015
- Greater Cincinnati Venture Association
- HYPE Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber
- Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber Foundation
- Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
- Northern Kentucky eZone
- Cooney, Faulkner & Stevens
- C-Cap
- Fort Washington Capital Partners
- Hamilton County Development Corporation

- The Health Foundation
- Cincinnati Inventor's Council
- BIOSTART
- biologic

- Planet Eureka

- 7/79

More info: Carolyn Pione, 513-693-5571/Elizabeth Edwards, 513-502-9756

*Pro-bono legal services applied toward patent applications and prosecution; subject to Ohio legal ethics rules and other terms and conditions. See official contest rules for details.